Music REview

Lupe Fiasco

With the Boy Illinois, Billy Blue, and Zverse. At the Wilbur Theatre, Wednesday

Halfway through his performance at the nearly sold-out Wilbur Theatre on Wednesday night, Lupe Fiasco paused to demand an unruly fan join him onstage.

“You’ve got about 30 seconds to make the whole crowd laugh, or I’m kicking you out of the auditorium,’’ said the Chicago rapper, passing him a microphone. Sounding ambivalent, the Boston-accented fan mustered a few joking insults, at which the crowd of about 1,000 booed. Fiasco just laughed and kicked the fan back into their midst.

For a tumultuous decade on Atlantic Records, this Jay-Z and Kanye West protégé continually surprised listeners with just such contradictory twists of brazen, purist righteousness and broad, all-is-forgiven fun. Now “an officially independent artist,’’ the 33-year-old rapper worked both ends of those contradictions in a low-budget career retrospective that proved continually engrossing for two-and-a-quarter hours, without an encore.

Fiasco began by demonstrating his command of pure rap flow as crisp and rarified as his beloved Japanese art. Hidden behind sunglasses and a bulky camouflage coat, the rapper stood on a large gray mat at one stage corner, with his DJ tucked on a platform at the other, and dove into a review of his last Atlantic album, the 2015 tour de force “Tetsuo and Youth.’’ As Fiasco moved through a half-hour, section-by-section survey, he opened up, dropping the coat, slipping off the mat, and finally removing the sunglasses. The music followed suit, with the jazzy sax solo at the close of “Body of Work’’ inspiring Fiasco into a faux waltz with an invisible partner.

After a short DJ break, Fiasco then took up a cordless microphone and began to engage the crowd more directly, as fans rapped back everything from his 2006 breakthrough “Kick, Push’’ through the 2011 hit “Out of My Head.’’ At one point, Fiasco also announced three new albums to be released this year, the third of which he promised would be his last — a promise belied by his obvious delight in the performance, and his closer, “The Show Goes On.’’

Opener Zverse barely engaged with his earnest raps. Southern club rapper Billy Blue fared better, especially when Fiasco joined him for “Chopper.’’ The Boy Illinois impressed even more brightly than his brilliant sky blue suit.

Lupe Fiasco

With the Boy Illinois, Billy Blue, and Zverse. At the Wilbur Theatre, Wednesday

Franklin Soults can be reached at fsoults@gmail.com.